The use of stents in blood vessels and other structures in the body has become a well established clinical procedure over the past decade. The equipment and techniques for deploying stents inside blood vessels and even at branch points are well established. There are, however, no effective devices or techniques available for stenting the ostium of blood vessels particularly arteries originating from the aorta. The tubular stents currently available are very difficult to position in the ostium of arteries; since the stent is either inserted too far leaving a critical portion of lesion uncovered, or the stent protrudes into the aorta. This problem occurs with balloon expandable, as well as self-expanding, stents, indeed with all stent designs currently available in the art.
A number of references are known. Hill, U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,244, discloses a flanged ostia tube for fitting within a stoma opening. MacGregor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,071, discloses a stent having an enlarged end (bifurcation). Maginot, U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,712, discloses a flanged stent member. Mori, U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,242, discloses a shape memory alloy stent where a portion of the stent flares in a funnel/conical shape to hold the stent in place. Lam, U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,144 discloses a specialized ostial stent for repairing vessels at bifurcations. However, none of the stents disclosed is believed to be as effective in the treatment of stenoses as the stent described below would be.